I am buying almost all my plastic plants at Craft stores.

For the most part, I pretty much get all my fake stuff at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. With a little bit of care, you can select some great stuff at a fraction of the prices of "made for aqaurium" stuff. In addition, you can get very large plastic plants- things that IF you were able to get at Petco or wherever, it would be amazingly expensive. Most of the time, these hobby stores are running a 50% off sale on plastic greenery. Pay attention. You will be amazed at what you can pick up.
The only thing I do is fill a 5 gal bucket with hot tap water and soak/rinse a couple times to remove any residue from the plastic.

I have even seen a particular type of fake plant at one of the local fish stores in LV. I am quite certian they got them at the hobby store too and are reselling them.
Of course, all this is of no value to you salt guys but for us freshies....BIG SAVINGS.

BTW...though the fake plants are not "water" plants, sometimes, when aquascapping, these imposters are very, very beautifull. I used fake Spanish Moss (plastic) as a stand alone in one of my tanks. When in water, it is simply a perfect Mossy looking stuff! I have used countless other non-water plants and when finished, they actually look better than the usual fake Cambomba ect. that you pick up at the pet store.

oh my god! thanks! its such a simple idea that i never even would have thought of. thanks dude!!!

how do you anchor them down though?

If superglue them to a rock or something else in the substrate...but...I've never done this before.

if you use a freshwater tank, if you take your FAKE plants, get a gob of silicone, put it on the end of it the plants in a nice sized gob, then kinda roll that around a dried pile of the same substrate your using in your tank, your plant magically becomes anchored invisibly. you can push it in the ground and its fine, or if you got big mean fishes that like to dig and pull out plants (like my oscars did) you can even let them pull it around and rearrange to their liking and it will still look nice, and stay on the bottom instead of floating around.

Win.. that is an outstanding idea!! I imagine you could also take a paper towl and put a huge glob of silicone on it, stick your plant in it, put the gravel/rocks into the mess, let it harden and presto! The paper towl should pretty much rub/wash off leaving just the "creation". I usually just jam my fakes under a rock to anchor them but your idea is better!!
Funny how something so obvious has never crossed my mind. I have tons of tubes of silicone just sitting around from my various resealing projects.

be certain you have 100% silicone, and one with no mold inhibitors that most of them use, or you may have problems.

I do the same thing. Except I anchor them to slate. Just get a slate tile, usually from home depot or lowes etc., then break or cut it into appropriately sized pieces. Using a masonry bit drill a hole/holes in the tile where you want to put the stem(s) through. Rinse the piece of slate in HOT HOT water to get all the dust off and out of the holes. The hotter it is the quicker it dries. Allow to dry completely. I then squirt some hot melt craft glue in the hole(s) and quickly insert the stem. Allow the glue to setup and drop it in the tank. I usually bury it in the substrate, but you could just set it in there. I use hot melt that says non toxic and have never had a problem. Alternatively I have used silicone(GE I), but I am too impatient for the 24 hr cure time and sometimes it is hard to keep the plant upright during the cure, especially if the hole is too large. The same works for rocks and driftwood. Just use your imagination.

Here are some pics of a 45g hex that I just outfitted with new plastic plants. I got about 2x as many plants as what's in there for about $25. The only real plants are what's in the small pot and a few small amazon swards.

I never would have thought about going to a craft store.